Steam's Next Fest, designed to showcase the best indie games and demos, has been overwhelmed this year by a surge of low-quality AI-generated projects. Players are complaining that their feeds are filled with games whose graphics and style clearly indicate the simple use of AI tools like ChatGPT. Users are asking Valve to add a filtering function to weed out such works and find games created by humans.
The influx of AI content has already caused dissatisfaction in the community. One player, in an appeal to Valve, noted that they would like the ability to hide AI-generated games, similar to how certain tags can be blocked. This has become particularly relevant after Valve began requiring developers to self-tag content created with AI.
While Steam traditionally faces a flood of low-quality games, the situation seems more acute this time. Some players express concern that such content could dilute the festival's value, making it harder to find truly high-quality indie projects. Meanwhile, Valve has yet to respond to user requests, relying on its algorithms to promote popular games and, presumably, hide less successful projects.
The situation reflects the growing influence of AI in the gaming industry. Developers like Epic Games and Capcom are actively integrating AI into their processes, which could lead to further changes in game creation.